1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to multilateral, sponsor driven winning of multiple xe2x80x9ccollect and winxe2x80x9d games by a disparate group of people or businesses. More particularly, the invention creates the ability for individuals to anonymously or openly share information pertaining specifically to xe2x80x9ccollect and winxe2x80x9d games or sweepstakes promotions where a xe2x80x9cpiecexe2x80x9d or code number (such as from a receipt) is needed in conjunction with other pieces or numbers, to win a prize from a game sponsor. A sponsor may be a promoter, advertiser, retailer, or a site provided by the invention.
2. Description of Related Art
Retailers and manufacturers such as COCA-COLA(trademark) and McDonald""s(trademark) commonly sponsor promotional games. In such a promotional game a player must collect a combination of elements in order to win a prize or one of many prizes given by the sponsor. For example, a cola-beverage manufacturer may print letters inside the bottle cap, and a player needs to collect the series of bottle caps with the letters C-O-L-A to win a prize. The game is usually available nationally if not worldwide and the odds of winning certain prizes are related to product distribution and availability among many other factors. Therefore it is difficult to collect the series of winning game pieces, since for example all of the xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d bottle caps may be distributed in a certain part of the country, whereas all of the xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d caps may be in a different part of the country or there may be only one or two winning letters in the entire geographic region of the game. It is highly unlikely that a player in say California or Japan would ever meet or have occasion to meet a player in Mississippi and share xe2x80x9cpiecesxe2x80x9d to win and/or share in contest prizes. The system according to the invention thus solves a problem and allows for an end product to be acquired, as will be described herein.
The apparent advantages and objects of the invention of the computer based method and apparatus according to the invention follow appropriately.
It is an object of the invention to provide a means for allowing players from all available playable geographic areas to combine different pieces so as to increase their chances of winning a prize.
It is another object of the invention to utilize computer modems, telephones, satellites and other devices which communicate with or on the Internet (i.e., the world wide web) and through such, to connect disparate players from all over the world and allow players to xe2x80x9csharexe2x80x9d and combine pieces with others in order to win prizes. The term Internet is used synonomously with the term xe2x80x9cworld wide webxe2x80x9d (www).
It is another object of the invention to provide a system, which matches a player""s piece(s) with other players"" pieces in order to collect enough pieces to share in the given prize.
A specific object of the invention is to develop promotional games where the only place a player will be able to obtain a piece is via the system. This piece will be xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d in nature in that it exists only on the game system according to the invention and can be combined with other virtual or actual pieces from other players to win a prize.
It is a further object of the invention to instill a xe2x80x9cfairnessxe2x80x9d system to see if a player is cheating or abusing the system.
An advantage of the invention is to offer increased odds to a player while helping sponsors to appear as if a game can actually be won and thereby increasing interest in the games and ultimately generating more sales.
A further advantage provided by the invention is that sponsors have a way of combining TV ads or programs, and product sales to generate interest in their products, due to the present invention.
The invention comprises a method and apparatus using a computer-based system for facilitating multiple players to increase their chances of winning a xe2x80x9ccollect and winxe2x80x9d game collaboratively. The game requires multiple game pieces to be matched in a winning combination for the game to be won. More particularly the system and method receives and inputs data for at least one game player. The data includes identification of a player and of a player""s game piece.
The system performs tracking and referencing of the data received for a player and for other players each having inputted unique data to the system. The data is matched from different players to match their multiple game pieces into a winning combination or portions of winning combinations in order for the game to be won collaboratively by multiple players.
The system notifies the multiple players via the system of a possible winning combination of those multiple players"" game pieces. The validity of the multiple players"" game pieces is verified by the system and/or the sponsors. Additional winning combinations are matched from alternate players having appropriate matching game pieces or appropriate portions of matching game piece combinations.
Matching game pieces are displayed by the system according to the players"" data including winning combinations and portions of winning combinations of multiple game pieces. The display is accessible by the players via the system.
The time and date of data received for each unique data input is stored and used for referencing, thereby enabling multiple potential winning combinations or portions of winning combinations of game pieces to be matched, sorted, and ranked, according to the time and date. The system additionally notifies each player of a winning or losing status as determined by parameters of the game.
The system can receive and input data for multiple different games, each having unique game parameters and multiple game players. The system references said data by generating virtual game pieces with the unique data. Players suspected of cheating or unfair playing of the game are identified and flagged as potential cheaters. The above mentioned advantages and objects of the present invention will further become apparent when taken with the detailed description of the invention.